Obstacles to Building a Civic Nation: Georgia's Armenian Minority and Conflicting Threat Perceptions

Abstract

This article examines the function of conflicting threat perceptions as obstacles to the development of a civic national identity in Georgia. The analysis focuses on threats perceived on the internal and external political arenas, as defined by Georgian government officials and members of the Armenian minority settled in the Javakheti region. It is discerned that the government's policies for national integration are seen as threats in the form of discrimination and assimilation by minority representatives, while incompatible understandings of Russia's role in Georgian politics provide for indirect questioning of the minority's loyalty to the state. It is concluded that conflicting threat perceptions provide a serious impediment to Georgia's ability to build a civic nation.